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She’d only ever seen him angry—which wasn’t even much—when she commented on him being Santa.
“Hi,” she said.
“What’s wrong?” he asked right away.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Come on now,” he said. “I can tell. When you force a smile, it looks like your lips are frozen from a Botox injection.”
She started to laugh. He did have the ability to make her do that. “How much do you know about Botox?”
“Only what I overhear women talking about and it’s not a lot because I normally run in the other direction. You’re not nervous about meeting my grandfather, are you? He’s harmless.”
“No,” she said. “I’m not.”
“Then what is it?”
She didn’t want to talk about her rotten day. “It’s fine. Just work.”
“It can’t be fine if you’re upset. Or maybe you’re annoyed. Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re upset.”
She walked over and flopped on the couch. “When is your grandfather getting here?”
“Not for another thirty minutes,” he said. “He’s packing up dinner.”
“You’re not cooking for him?” she asked, frowning.
“My grandfather has long since given up trying to teach me to cook or coming here and having sandwiches or what I pick up. He made chili which he knows I love and he’s going to stop and get bread with it.”
“That’s a lot of work for him to bring it,” she said.
“Nope,” he said. “It’s in a crockpot and he gets little bread bowls. I’m good at hollowing them out and putting the chili in it with cheese. That’s my job. Now tell me what happened at work today and stop trying to change the subject.”
She let out a sigh. “A bad court day. I’m such a loser. I’m embarrassed on top of it.”
He frowned again. “Now I need to know what happened for you to feel like a loser.”
“I can’t even win in traffic court, Cal.Traffic court. I mean come on. It was my first case that I was going to get a verdict here. It’s not even anything big in the scheme of things, but everything else I’ve been doing is preparing for court or trial but nothing finalized. You know that. This is my first since I moved. Should have been a slam dunk.”
She just wanted to grind her teeth, but she’d learned a valuable lesson.
“Tell me how you lose in traffic court,” he said. “And what was lost?”
“My client, Penelope, she lost her license. The reason she hired me was to at least save her license more than anything else. She’s been in numerous accidents and has had speeding and other traffic violations almost every few months for the past several years.”
“Damn,” he said. “Sounds like she needs Driver’s Ed or something.”
“I have to go back to court and pretty much beg for a work license at this point along with safe driving courses. We lost because of her too.”
“What did she do?” he asked.
“She came fifteen minutes late. The judge was getting pissed. You don’t do that. More so when you’re new and it’s your first time meeting the judge. One that happens to be a bit of a hard ass.”
“Yikes,” he said. “It doesn’t sound as if it was your fault though. Why are you being so hard on yourself?”
“Because it is my fault as it’s my responsibility to be on my client’s case and make sure she shows up on time. On top of that she came in in sweats and an old ripped T-shirt. I’m not saying you should dress up in a suit, but show some humility and give the judge and his courtroom some respect.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Did you tell Penelope to do that?”
